It's that time again...hopefully, by now our previous blog posts have brought you up to speed with the main booking and joining features in our new SaaS solution, GladstoneGo. Have we finished banging on about it? Of course not! This week, we're covering everything in the My Account area. Read on to discover what it’s all about and our whole heap of plans for future features and functionalities.
What is the My Account area?
Exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a dedicated space for your customers to manage their bookings, memberships, and personal details. We wanted to create a simple space where users can control their own leisure journeys. No more calling or queuing up in reception to make any changes. Instead, the MyAccount area acts as a central hub where users can edit details and preferences whenever and wherever they choose.
How do my customers access it?
After someone has joined or booked a class or activity, they will be sent an email containing a link to their account. So, this area is for everyone, not just members! PAYG users will also receive a login when they book something, so they are free to use it as much or as little as they like.
For Operators - Make it your own
Branding - As with the other areas in GladstoneGo, the My Account area can be branded with your colours to fit in seamlessly with your website.
User fields – Ask your customers anything by configuring the user fields in the account area to capture any information you need. To simplify the joining process, we recommend collecting minimal information initially and then utilising the My Account section to delve deeper and gather more information about your customers.
What can my customers do in the My Account area?
Change passwords – Are you even human if you don’t forget your password every now and then? All it takes is a simple click of a button, and you’ll get sent an email containing a link to reset it.
Edit details – Moved house? Got a new email address? No problem – save yourself a phone call or a visit to a centre and just update details directly in your account.
Update marketing preferences – No more spamming customers with every email under the sun, customers can easily choose what they want to hear from you about, meaning you’re only sending them relevant information that they’re more likely to read and act on.
GDPR settings - We know that GDPR isn’t the sexiest thing in the world, but we all know how important it is – it’s super simple to edit your GDPR preferences.
Keep track of bookings – View previous and upcoming bookings. There’s also a direct link through to the bookings page to make things as easy as possible and encourage rebooking.
View Memberships – Members can keep track of their memberships – view details, check expiry dates, view the Direct Debit mandate – all that good stuff.
You won’t get bored in the Dashboard
The dashboard is the central hub where customers can check in on their progress and usage. We’ve built in some gamification features so customers can see how often they’ve visited, how many activities they’ve taken part in and the number of days since their last visit. Have a challenge to go every other day? Use the dashboard as motivation to not let that number creep up. It also shows the value for money that you get with a membership which might help sway your PAYG customers into deciding to purchase a membership with you.
Pay off outstanding charges
Let’s talk about outstanding charges. For an operator, getting customers to pay off their overdue balance can be difficult, and for a customer, it can be easy to forget to pay off your debt or sometimes it can be unclear how much you owe.
In the GladstoneGo My Account area, any outstanding charges are clearly displayed as soon as you log in – it’s impossible to miss them! And as a customer goes to checkout, any unpaid items are already in the basket so must be paid off before proceeding with the transaction. No more chasing customers for those missing few quid or making them visit reception to pay off their fines.
The future of My Account
We have lots of exciting ideas for the My Account area so keep an eye out for these shiny new features in the future:
Class Recommendations - ‘Hey have you tried this?’ Based on which classes and activities the user has been booking, they will receive recommendations to try new things. The perfect opportunity for you to push that new mini trampoline class you’re about to launch.
Linked members – As ‘linked memberships’ with family and friends become a reality in the future, the My Account area will allow customers to manage memberships and bookings of their linked members, saving time and effort for all involved.
Anything else you'd like to see?
Have your say! Do you have an idea for the My Account section that would make you or your customers’ lives a lot easier? Head to the customer portal and start a new discussion thread or simply upvote any suggestions that you like the look of. We’ll take this into account when we’re thinking about new features and functionalities that we can develop next, so don’t miss out on helping us shape the future of GladstoneGo!
And there we have it, over the past few weeks, we’ve covered the main areas of GladstoneGo – joining, booking and My Account. We hope you’ve got a good sense of the simple and modernised user experience we’ve been working so hard to create.
We truly believe it’s a gamechanger in the leisure industry and we hope you do too! Why not book a demo and see for yourself that it is really all it’s cracked up to be?